Three killed, five injured after car crashes into tanker on Salem-Coimbatore highway

Three people, including a woman, were killed and five others injured after their car crashed into a stationary tanker lorry on the Salem-Coimbatore National Highway near Chengapalli in Tamil Nadu. Police said the accident occurred during an overtaking attempt and have launched an investigation

Tiruppur: Three persons, among them a woman, died and five others were injured after their car rammed into a stationary tanker lorry on the Salem-Coimbatore national highway near Chengapalli on Saturday.

The victims have been identified as Vijay (30), his wife Thenmozhi (26), and Kumar (36), police said. They were part of an eight-member group travelling from Tiruttani to the hill station of Ooty when the mishap occurred.

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Police said the accident occurred when the driver attempted to overtake a tanker lorry on the busy highway. The manoeuvre went fatally wrong as the car rammed into the gas tanker.

Of the eight occupants, split evenly between men and women, two men died on the spot. Highway commuters and ambulance personnel rushed to the accident site to rescue the trapped passengers from the crushed vehicle.

The critically injured were rushed to the Uthukuli government hospital, where Thenmozhi died before treatment could begin. Two survivors are in critical condition at the government hospital, while three others are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Tirupur.

The bodies of the three deceased have been moved to the Perundurai government hospital for post-mortem examination. The Uthukuli police have registered a case and are investigating the sequence of events.